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- Man Eating Bears!
- Nuclear Power: The Gift that Keeps on Giving.
- White House Displays Usual Scientific Integrity.
- The Future of Solar Power
- Top NASA Scientist Says We’re all “Toast”
- Crunching More Than Credit
- Even more tory green stuff…
- Green Cabs in the Long White Cloud
- Tory? Really? Greens and Lib Dems losing the Green vote
- Slaughtering Sacred Cows.
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Man Eating Bears!
Posted by alex
You’ve gotta love the way this story is reported everywhere. The Daily Mail, obviously having a slow week in the immigrants/ Princess Diana / house prices reporting declare B-Movie Style:
Man-eating bears kill two scientists and lay siege to survivors trapped in remote forest base!
They continue that “at least 30 hungry bears have trapped a group of geologists at their remote survey site in the far east of Russian after killing two of their colleagues last week, emergency officials said.
The team of geologists on the Kamchatka Peninsula were forced to remain in camp with weapons ready as the ravenous bears - some ten feet tall - roamed around outside!!!”
Nuclear Power: The Gift that Keeps on Giving.
Posted by alex
I’m still not sure where I stand on this one. Just as I think it’s our only hope and I buy into Lovelock’s argument that it’s the only thing that can save us, new stories come out as to just how unsafe it can be. The Guardian reports this week on the Tricastin site, a French nuclear power plant run by EDF, the company which is poised to buy British Energy and take control of most UK nuclear stations and where an accident last month saw ” liquid containing untreated uranium overflow out of a faulty tank. About 75kg of uranium seeped into the ground and into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers which flow into the Rhône.”
White House Displays Usual Scientific Integrity.
Posted by alex
Democrats in Congress are currently getting their first view of a governmental proposal to label climate change a “threat to public health”, after the Supreme Court ordered the EPA to investigate greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the Bush government refused to even read the proposal.
The Future of Solar Power
Posted by alex
One of the criticisms of solar power has always been that it cannot provide enough energy, that there isn’t enough sun to power the colder, western nations. I always thought this was the perfect opportunity, both to address climate change and fossil fuel dependency, and build infrastructure and industry in poorer African nations. With newer power lines, it seems such technology is finally within our grasp. As usual the only thing that stands in the way is the usual consortium of dithering politicans and the nuclear lobby. Nevertheless, the Guardian reports today that both Brown and Sarkozy are interested:
“Speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona, Arnulf Jaeger-Walden of the European commission’s Institute for Energy, said it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and Middle East deserts to meet all of Europe’s energy needs.
…
A new supergrid, transmitting electricity along high voltage direct current cables would allow countries such as the UK and Denmark ultimately to export wind energy at times of surplus supply, as well as import from other green sources such as geothermal power in Iceland.
Energy losses on DC lines are far lower than on the traditional AC ones, which make transmission of energy over long distances uneconomic.
The grid proposal, which has won political support from both Nicholas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown, answers the perennial criticism that renewable power will never be economic because the weather is not sufficiently predictable. Its supporters argue that even if the wind is not blowing hard enough in the North Sea, it will be blowing somewhere else in Europe, or the sun will be shining on a solar farm somewhere.
Scientists argue that harnessing the Sahara would be particularly effective because the sunlight in this area is more intense: solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in northern Africa could generate up to three times the electricity compared with similar panels in northern Europe.
…
Scientists working on the project admit that it would take many years and huge investment to generate enough solar energy from north Africa to power Europe but envisage that by 2050 it could produce 100 GW, more than the combined electricity output from all sources in the UK, with an investment of around €450bn.
Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, welcomed the proposals: “Assuming it’s cost-effective, a largescale renewable energy grid is just the kind of innovation we need if we’re going to beat climate change.”
Jaeger-Walden also believes that scaling up solar PV by having large solar farms could help bring its cost down for consumers. “The biggest PV system at the moment is installed in Leipzig and the price of the installation is €3.25 per watt,” he said. “If we could realise that in the Mediterranean, for example in southern Italy, this would correspond to electricity prices in the range of 15 cents per kWh, something below what the average consumer is paying.”"
Top NASA Scientist Says We’re all “Toast”
Posted by alex
20 years after warning America about global warming, James Hansen, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the only hope now is “drastic action”.
Crunching More Than Credit
Posted by alex
Here at the Daily Lime, we’re learning a great deal as we go along - not just about the bigger issues, but about how they trickle down into every day life. I know I mentioned in an earlier post how small things like recycling and plastic bags really don’t do a great deal but the flip side of that is how enjoyable and addictive living a less wasteful life can be. So much so, that I’ve decided to look into having a go at growing a bit of my own food. I was reading about some of the schemes currently being set up (like this one - http://www.foodupfront.org/ for example) and thinking once again about how everyone supplemented their rations by growing food during the war. You can grow food wherever you are, whatever the size of your property / flat; it’s supposed to be easy, ( though I have managed to kill every houseplant I’ve ever owned, so I’m not overconfident). I’ll report back when I’ve decided what to grow.
Even more tory green stuff…
Posted by alex
Further to my earlier post, the papers are all full of praise today for Cameron’s reassertion of his environmental credentials. As I mentioned before, it really hurts to watch the tories leading the debate on this. The greens and the lib dems have been so far ahead of everyone else for so long that it doesn’t seem quite fair; and I had hoped Gordon Brown, for all his faults, would use that over-sized brain of his and stake out his leadership skills on the environment. But the removal of habeus corpus, the economy and that ridiculous smile seem to be all that Brown is interested in working on. For the full tory speech, see below the fold. After that, it’s a case of guessing whether he’s for real, or whether it is all part of the rebranding that very seriously may bring them back into power and return us to the same old tory ways I remember growing up with:
Green Cabs in the Long White Cloud
Posted by Greg
So I got an email from my sister the other day going on and on (God love ya Dee) about the Prius. Now my sister is earth friendly but loves her car sand faster the better so I wondered how and why she had come to learn so much about the Toyalta hybrid?
Tory? Really? Greens and Lib Dems losing the Green vote
Posted by alex
Like a lot of people I find myself in the rather strange position of actually contemplating voting tory next time round, mainly because they seem more progressive on the environment. I started out green then moved to the lib dems but in all honesty politically the conservatives might be like nuclear power - not ideal, but our best chance of actually doing something before it’s too late?
Anyway, I’m still undecided whether Cameron will stick to his guns - this is promising, though:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jun/17/conservatives.greenpolitics
Slaughtering Sacred Cows.
Posted by alex
Recycling is all well and good but I’ve never forgotten watching a documentary about my local recycling centre, mouth wide open in horror. After religiously recycling every week for about a year I discovered that the place where all that recycled refuse ended up was routinely shipping it off in the general rubbish containers to China, or India. Plastic bags, carbon offsetting, flying halfway across the planet for any kind of “green tourism”. None of these are worth shit in the big scheme of things. If you want to make a real difference, it’s time to give up eating meat, embrace the nuclear age, and stop using China as an excuse. At least that’s what the folks at Wired would have us believe:
http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-06/ff_heresies_intro
Green House Downunder
Posted by Greg
Once again my Kiwi brothers are showing us how it should be done.
Ethical Fashion - View the Thread
Posted by Greg
A new site from the BBC, who continual their impressive range of eco conscious micro site. A get guide to dress green and look great http://www.bbc.co.uk/thread
Thread is the online fashion magazine dedicated to bringing you the latest in eco-fabulous style.Ethical fashion is fashion that has been made, worn and passed on in a way that looks after people, animals and the environment. The clothes we feature in thread support this approach, making us essential viewing for fashion-conscious people who care about where their clothes come from. All clothes tick off at least one of these principles:Made and traded sustainable – clothes and accessories where suppliers of raw materials receive a fair price and workers get a fair wage, with guaranteed rights. Ideally the trade brings new benefits to communities.Made of sustainable materials – minimising the impact of fashion on the environment. Look out for clothes made from cool, organic cotton that are safer for farmers, garment workers and the environment, as they’re free from chemical pesticides and fertilisers. And clothes made from funky alternatives such as hemp and bamboo.Recycled or vintage – keeping clothes out of landfill and cutting fabric waste in factories. Many of our clothes are classic vintage items and stylish one-off pieces made from recycled garments, factory off-cuts and remnants.Ethical fashion is becoming cool in its own right, making the move from catwalk to high street, with a list of celebrity fans such as Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Brad Pitt, Leona Lewis and Leonardo di Caprio.Thread shows you how to get the look you want in an eco-glam way through our unique mix of affordable fashion, exclusive videos, photo galleries and thought-provoking features.There are so many ways you can get involved from shopping ethically on the high street and buying vintage or second hand to swapping clothes with friends and customising the clothes you already have. There are options to suit your style, your budget and your views.
The Daily Thanet.
Posted by alex
This looks awesome.
It’s the economy, stupid!
Posted by alex
Sooner or later we’re going to need to stop reproducing and stop consuming quite so much. There is, after all, only so much room on the planet. Unfortunately (or fortunately) you cannot regulate these things and the only hope is for markets to take care of themselves. At the moment we’re seeing this in action with oil, which has long been predicted, but what is interesting is the same warnings are now being made about water:
US Senate in Shock Climate Greenwash!
Posted by alex
Surprising no one, the world’s greatest polluters yet again stick their heads in the sand:
